New research suggests that healthcare is lagging behind most other industries when it comes to digital transformation efforts.
The study, which was released by Precisely and Corinium Global Intelligence, surveyed 300 chief data officers with more than 2,500 employees on how their digital initiatives were going.
According to researchers, software and technology companies were particularly advanced in their efforts, with 80% of responding CDOs have established a data analytics program that has been “quite successful” so far. Second in line were transportation and logistics companies, 65% of which said that their efforts had been successful.
Near the bottom of the list were financial services, telecommunications and healthcare, CDOs of which said they were seeing success rates of 60%. At the bottom of the list was retail, with 55% OF CDOs reporting mixed or disappointing results.
Despite the differences in their business focus, the CDOs had many problems in common. For example, 4 out of 5 enterprises reported struggling to enrich their existing data to uncover new insights and hidden patterns in their data.
Many also reported that data teams spent an average of 40% of their time cleaning and prepping their data for analysis, which the CDOs consider to be too much. This is probably related to their trouble with hiring, with nearly 9 out of 10 CDOs say their efforts are hampered by a lack of staff with appropriate skills. Meanwhile, 82% of CDOs say data quality concerns are holding back their efforts.
What’s more, roughly two-thirds of respondents (65%) said their staff only trusted insights from data if it confirmed their gut feel as to what is really going on.
To build out their digital transformation efforts, the CDOs reported that they needed to meet compliance and regulatory requirements; enable a remote or distributed workforce; support a micro-targeted capability for personalized customer communications; integrate or divest due to mergers and acquisitions and build a 360-degree view of customers.
Without a doubt, healthcare leaders will engage in digital transformation efforts. However, as the survey notes, there are quite many obstacles that stand in the way. Providers will need to expand their staff members, and those staffers need to have high-end skills. Healthcare leaders will also need to develop technology platforms that drive the complex process of transformation.
The bottom line for healthcare organizations is that most are going to transform their infrastructure over time. That being said there’s a lot of work to be done before it will be achievable.
